Next week, I am taking the Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland, Oregon. In a previous question about train travel, someone suggested reading books that take place along your train route. This is an idea I love ... and I have at least 47 hours to pass! So: what are your favorite (kindle) books which occur in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, or Oregon? Bonus for rural themes. I am not a big mystery fan, but if it is particularly excellent, I'll read it. Romance is out. Otherwise, I'm open to anything!
posted by ChuraChura
on Jun 20, 2014 -
41 answers

Help me find books that convey a jolly feeling of appreciation for the wonders of modern life. Ideally these would be books that have a sci-fi or fantasy feel, but in which nothing overtly magical or fantastic happens. The best recent examples I can think of are Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, which has all the elements of a fantasy novel but is set squarely in our world, and William Gibson's most recent novels, all of which feel fantastic to me but are grounded in real life. [more inside]
posted by spacewaitress
on Apr 10, 2014 -
18 answers

What novels or short stories grapple with the decline of a superpower? I'm thinking waning-British-Empire stuff, primariy, but the decline of other global powerhouses is fine too. Must be fiction. Decline-of-Empire can either be primary to the plot or a backdrop against which other key aspects of the story unfold.
posted by croutonsupafreak
on Oct 16, 2013 -
16 answers

Ancient Roman and Greek civilizations set my imagination ablaze, and while I've loved Homer's works right now I'm interested in works written in, say, the last century that take place in those times, or thereabouts. [more inside]
posted by gregoryg
on Sep 24, 2013 -
25 answers

Recently, I purchased a complete set of Balzac's Human Comedy for my Kindle. At roughly the same price as my morning coffee. Balzac was a infamously productive writer. So I'm asking for some recommendations to help me navigate this hyoooge corpus. [more inside]
posted by jason's_planet
on Sep 1, 2013 -
4 answers

It's driving me crazy - the book was about fishing/fisherman and featured dark linocut illustrations. I think the cover was blue and black. My recollection is that the tone of the book was sad. This was in Canada, early 1970s, if it matters. Help!
posted by SpecialSpaghettiBowl
on Aug 25, 2013 -
6 answers

Children's book, of a wintery sort (I've been trying to remember the title for six months). I read it in the last 15 years. It involved a bored princess and someone that came and shook everything up - perhaps pied piper-ish? It involved juggling I think and the character's name was really important - I remember it as something like 'Hode'.
posted by an opinicus
on Jul 11, 2013 -
4 answers

For a project I'm currently working on as part of my graduation in Graphic Design, I wanted to compile something like an atlas of fictional cities. These may be from books, legends, stories, video games, advertisements, comics, really whatever... Even "real" cities but alternate versions, imagined or in some way deviate from their real counterpart are valid. [more inside]
posted by ahtlast93
on May 18, 2013 -
47 answers

Why do horror stories often feature mysterious relics that often have information encoded in them, such as accursed old books, runes, etc.? What kinds of anxieties is this trope meant to express? [more inside]
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur
on Apr 4, 2013 -
34 answers

I was linked a book some time ago via twitter, but that account is now gone and with it went the link.
Things I remember:
Pretty sure it was called "Daylight" (maybe not that, but definitely a time word. daytime? morning?)
Content: the text was just the entirety of a single day's New York Times transcribed
The link went to the publisher, I recall seeing it on Amazon also.
I believe published in the early 90s. 93ish? But still purchasable
Currently going crazy trying to find it with such not-so-limiting search terms. My browser history doesn't go back far enough to find it there. Hoping someone familiar with it happens upon this, I guess.
posted by arsey
on Mar 8, 2013 -
1 answer

Recommendations for fiction about the rich and all their trappings, imposters within that world, or stories where the mighty fell and then rose again? [more inside]
posted by dean winchester
on Dec 12, 2012 -
27 answers

Has anyone ever written an Arthurian novel with the Round Table as the bad guys? I am specifically *not* talking about books from the perspective of Mordred or Morgaine (or any of their cognates.) There are lots and lots of those. [more inside]
posted by restless_nomad
on Oct 13, 2012 -
7 answers

Looking for lists of memes, themes and repeated elements in children's stories that I can use in entirely new stories I'm making up for actual children. [more inside]
posted by booksherpa
on Sep 13, 2012 -
8 answers

South African novel? A Boer seduces a black girl, they have sex in his Mercedes Benz. The book deals with the seduction that comes before, and the problems afterwards. The white guy is NOT cast as a villain. My friend read this book in the 70s and is looking for it. Thanks!
posted by Tom-B
on Jul 17, 2012 -
10 answers

Excellent Action Scenes In Books? I'm looking for examples of tense, fast paced action sequences in novels and short stories. The written equivalent to the cinematic on-the-edge-of-your-seat-oh-crap-the-person-may-die-how-will-they-escape thing. Bonus if the situation is complex yet reads like a clear, clockwork machine. [more inside]
posted by The Whelk
on Feb 8, 2012 -
42 answers

Please help me find a story i read about 10 years ago.
In a dystopian world, criminals are not locked up, but instead are marked and ordinary people are not allowed to interact with them. [more inside]
posted by revikim
on Nov 10, 2011 -
7 answers

More non-fiction please! As a strange antidote to having to read a lot of dry academic articles, I enjoy pleasurable non-fiction writing about jobs and work. Books I've liked in the past include May Roach (Stiff); Atul Gawande (Complications, Better); Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickeled and Dimed); and Tracy Kidder (House, Among Schoolchildren). I'd like recommendations for more non-fiction along those lines. [more inside]
posted by jeanmari
on Sep 23, 2011 -
36 answers

I am looking for a chapter book I read as a kid in the 1970s/1980s in which a princess and her family have to move out of their ancestral home and instead rent all the houses on a street to hold all their things that used to be in the castle. It was kind of an adventure/mystery story after that, I think involving something with the family possessions. Anyone know the title of this book please?
posted by cmp4Meta
on Aug 12, 2011 -
2 answers

Summer Reading-Filter: intelligent true crime? Essentially, I want all the gruesome pleasure of the content, without having to cringe through a sensationalistic treatment thereof. [more inside]
posted by Beardman
on Jun 9, 2010 -
49 answers

Should I try to move from the newspaper industry to the book publishing industry? Or is this just jumping from one sinking ship to another? Canada-specific advice appreciated. [more inside]
posted by anonymous
on Mar 24, 2010 -
5 answers

What sci-fi novels feature small community habitats which are the petri dishes of social/political experimentation? By "habitat" I mean a structure or ship that's totally isolated and self-sufficient. Dystopia in miniature! [more inside]
posted by cowbellemoo
on Feb 13, 2010 -
45 answers

[Obscure book filter] Anyone remember a book about a grandfather hired to make a notebook to teach someone's daughter about the world, but he secretly makes two copies? [more inside]
posted by BusyBusyBusy
on Nov 23, 2009 -
11 answers

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